Category: Skills

For Christmas, my brother got me a book by Cal Newport called “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”. Well its almost April and I finally got around to reading it. The title was a little misleading. The book is actually more about how to find happiness than getting so good they can’t ignore you. That said Newport did a great job laying out a plan on how to derive more happiness out of your career, which I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend you read the book when you have a chance. If you want to borrow my copy feel free to send me a message.

In the book, Newport gives you 4 rules to follow to lead yourself to a happier career.

RULE 1. Following your passion is terrible advice. I thought this was the weakest of the rules in the book. I’ve always felt that your career should be a balance of things people will pay you to do, things you are good at, and things you like to do. Newport argues the point that every job is going to have things that no one likes to do so instead you should focus on building skills in your chosen line of work.

RULE 2. Build skills that are rare and valuable. Newport calls this career capital. I happen to call it plain old skills. I thought Newport offered some insightful advice in this section because he talked about how people who are true experts in their field get that way by doing deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is measured and focused practice on a specific thing in the expert’s field.

RULE 3. Seek out control. Control plays a major role in how happy you will be in a given job. Understand that there has to be balance between control and skills. If you can’t figure out how to file folders correctly don’t expect your boss to let you control your own schedule. On the other hand, if you are the only one in the office who can run the accounting software don’t be afraid to tell your boss when it works best for you to do the job.

RULE 4. Have a mission.Your mission, vision, and values need to be guiding your actions. I couldn’t agree more with this rule. One tip Newport recommended that I thought was an interesting idea was to attempt small experiments to see if they help achieve your mission. This blog happens to be one of my small experiments to see if I can make the world a more efficient place.

Have you used any of these rules to make your career more enjoyable? Let me know how in the comments.

I was not compensated for this review. I am an affiliate with Amazon and am compensated a small amount for each sale made by someone who uses my link. If you would like to do me a favor copy this link into your favorites and use it to navigate to amazon. http://amzn.to/2klSyPo

The other day I talked about learning how to use shortcut/hot keys to make yourself more efficient while using the computer. So at this point I’m going to assume you’ve completely mastered Windows, Word, and Excel hot keys and your boss bought you a new computer because you were making the old one look so slow. It feels good doesn’t it. There is only one problem. You want more. You get that first taste of flying through a program as fast as it can go and you realize there should be a hot key for the next action you want to take, but there isn’t.

This is where a program called AutoHotkey steps in to solve your problem. AutoHotkey is a program that can record macros, run scripts, and expand text. These words might sound intimidating to some of you, but I assure you AutoHotkey is amazingly easy to use. With these functions combined it makes for an incredibly powerful automation tool.

One of the features that makes AutoHotkey so easy to use is that it has great documentation about how to use the tool. The help manual that comes with the program is extremely well written. Whenever I have had a problem in AutoHotkey and consulted the help manual I have been able solve my problem within a matter of a few minutes. If you get past the beginner problems and start to face more difficult problems AutoHotkey has a huge community of users who help one and another out with their problems using the tool. You would have to try very hard to stump some of the people on the AutoHotkey forums.

AutoHotkey is free to download.

I’ll share my most commonly used AutoHotkey hot key. My AutoHotkey is super handy when using Excel and wanting to paste special values because it is done in one fluid step rather than three steps. Usually you would have to press Ctrl, Alt, v, to bring up the paste special menu then v to select the values, then hit enter. Instead I used AutoHotkey to do this task by pressing Shift(+), Alt(^), Ctrl(!), and v all at the same time and it sends a message to the computer to send Alt(^), Ctrl(!), and v followed by v again and then hitting enter.

+^!v::
Send ^!vv{Enter}
Return

Do you use any programs similar to AutoHotkey? Do you have any similar tips the world shouldn’t go on without hearing about? Let me know in the comments.

I did not receive any form of compensation for this review. It is just my honest opinion. If you have another similar software that you think I’m missing out on let me know I’d love to check it out.

When talking about negotiating I want to stress that keeping the big picture in mind is very important. It is easy to get caught up in a highly emotional situation and lose sight of what is really important.

One way to avoid losing sight of the big picture is to understand what your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (BANTA) is. If the negotiation you are currently engaged in does not work out what will you be left with? The answer to this question will generally inform how large of a range the two parties will negotiate over.

UNDERSTAND THE OTHER PARTY’S BATNA

It is important to understand what your counterpart has for a best alternative to a negotiated agreement. If one party has a very strong BATNA they will be unlikely to compromise during the negotiation, whereas if a party has a terrible BATNA they will be strongly incentivized to compromise and work out a deal.

LOOK TO IMPROVE YOUR OWN BATNA

In any situation there is always room for improvement. The same goes for negotiating. You should always be on the lookout for ways you can improve your own position.

For example, if you are trying to sell someone your used car for $3,000 dollars you would start with a BATNA not selling and holding onto your car. This is a pretty bad BATNA when you want or need to sell your car. Through the process of trying to sell your car, you find out a friend of your relative would like to buy the car, but they are hoping for the reduced price of $2,500. This doesn’t sound as bad as the previous BATNA, but you were trying to do better. This this case your BATNA has improved from 0 to $2,500. A week later you get a phone call from someone who would like to come look at the car. When they come to look at the car you already know you won’t take anything less than $2,500 because you have an alternative.

From the perspective of the person coming over to look at the car they would also want to improve their BATNA by finding other cars that will satisfy their needs. Now if they come over and tell you they absolutely must have a car by tonight to drive to their job in the morning or else they are going to get fired and this is the only car they’ve looked at. Well then you can be pretty sure that they are going to pay the full $3,000 price tag. It isn’t always in your best interest to reveal your BATNA.

Today’s tip on negotiating is one we all learned at a very young age. Only negotiate with someone who has the authority to give you what you want. We learned this when we were children asking our parents for something.

In the real world this negotiating technique shows up in a slightly different manner. You are sitting at the car dealership with the car salesman and you are going back and forth about which options are in or out and what the final price will be and how much you will get for your trade in. You finally come to an agreement and the salesman says “Great! Let me just run this by my boss real quick and we’ll get you out the door”. He comes back a good time later with a glum look on his face and breaks the news to you that the price he gave you was too good and his boss won’t allow it. Then the salesman will say something like this “but if you can just raise your offer a little bit I’m sure I can talk the boss into this deal.”

This is where if you don’t remain alert you are going to get burned. This dealership is trying to manipulate you.

You aren’t negotiating with the person who can give you what you want.

How to deal with this problem

Validate

Before you start any negotiation always learn about the other party. This goes back to being a good communicator. A basic question you should always ask is, “do you have the authority to make an agreement with me or do you need further approval.” You probably don’t want to negotiate with someone who can’t make an agreement. Try to deal directly with the person who can make the deal happen.

Fight Fire with Fire

Try using the “I need to ask my boss or the one with authority” in reverse sometime, it is rather funny to see. Negotiate your heart out on the car of your dreams and when the salesman asks you to sign on the dotted line tell him you first have to run it by your significant other, who isn’t there at the moment. Later that month you can call the salesman back and say your significant other was not happy with the price and won’t be letting you get the car at that price, but if you could just drop it down a few hundred dollars you think you could talk them into it.

In my professional career when negotiating with contractors for the mine it is standard practice to validate that the other party has the authority to make a final decision. I wanted to share with you the best response I have heard to the validate question, which I have brazenly taken as my own standard response. When asked if you are able to authorize an agreement always say that you are authorized up to a certain amount. This incentivizes the other party to give concessions in hopes of having you not escalate the issue and also gives you the option to escalate if needed. The next contractor I hear use this exact line I’m going to buy a box of doughnuts for because I figure hey if I can’t win the negotiation I might as well try to bribe them.

Do you have an experience negotiating with someone who wasn’t able to negotiation? How did you feel?

I wanted to end with a quick reminder that negotiating should focus on creating a win for everyone. Work to make the pie bigger for everyone. You will always make more money making a bigger pie than you will by getting a bigger piece of the small pie. With that said I still find it helpful to have the tools necessary to acquire a bigger piece of the pie even when the pie isn’t going to get any bigger.

Yesterday I started talking about negotiation as a skill to develop to lead a more efficient life.

Have you ever been in a negotiation where you made an offer and the other party immediately accepted your offer and left you feeling like you offer way too much?

Today I’m going to talk about the strategies and tactics I use when negotiating to help avoid that feeling like you could have done better. Be aware of the strategies and tactics available for you to use in a negotiation makes seeing through them easier.

The first strategy is anchoring. Anchoring is the idea that people are attached to the first number they hear or see. Retailers everywhere use anchoring to make you think you are getting a better deal than you really are. Look at this watch below. Do you really think anyone ever paid $695 dollars for it. No, but it makes you think at $59.99 it is a pretty good deal.

Tactics for using anchoring

When you should give out the first number

If you have a solid understanding of the value of an item or service and there is a well-defined market you should eagerly try to provide the first number in the negotiation. Of course, your number should be slightly higher than you expect to get, but should be a reasonable number. You are trying to anchor the other party to this value in their head.

When you shouldn’t give out the first number

If you are negotiating over something that doesn’t have a well-defined value or market, you should avoid making the first offer because you may inadvertently give away a large portion of the negotiating range without realizing it. If you have done this, a poor negotiator will immediately accept your offer leaving you with that feeling like you could have done better. An experience negotiator will immediately recalibrate their expectations and bargain with you further, you’ll never know you gave away a bunch of value. Next time you are negotiating and hear someone accept your offer a little too quick take that as opportunity to learn that you likely left money on the table during that negotiation.

How you should react after hearing an offer

You’ve managed to avoid giving the first number and now you’ve just heard what the other party’s offer will be. It is a better offer than you could have imaged and you want to jump up and down and accept it immediately. DON’T! Everyone will feel better about the negotiation if you act interested but not impressed. Use this time as an opportunity to learn more about the other party and how they arrived at that number. Once you’ve learned more about the offer if you find it is truly remarkable go ahead and accept it otherwise feel free to politely counter it with and offer of your own. If you do chose to the counter the offer you should expect that the final number will end up being split between their initial offer and your initial counter offer.

What are your experiences with making the first offer or not making the first offer? Let me hear your story below.

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